Banger – the Bike Hanger

This is a bike hanger solution to store your thin wheel bike in a cheap, practical and with much smaller visual and volume impact than most specialized solutions.

It uses the 3 units of the HJÄLMAREN towel hangers and one small rope or leather strip less than 1.5m long. Even though I haven’t tried it with large tires, it will probably still work, even though it’s not such a snug fit.

Items list:

3x HJÄLMAREN
+
1 x Leather Strip or Small Rope

Solution

This is what it looks like before the bike goes up, and you can see the 4 pieces that make up for the complete solution.

There will be two lower hangers onto which the wheels will be fitted without extra support.

There will be an upper hanger onto which the bike frame will be fastened with either a small rope ( ~1m, give or take) or a leather strip with loops at the ends.

Parts amounted to 3×4,99€ for the hangers, plus 12€ for the leather strip sourced at a local bag/leather shop. Total cost was 26,97€ but it could go for as little as 14,97€ if you reuse some piece of rope that you have lying around.

The beauty of this solution is that it’s made of elements will very small visual impact, it’s very practical, easy to implement, and it’s also the optimal solution to reduce the wasted room volume and head circulation nuisance.

Instructions

1 – Start by putting the lower hangers in the ground against a wall and place the bike wheels on top of them. This will define the horizontal separation of the lower hangers.
2 – Set the rope to go around the bike frame like this, and make some loops on both ends.

3 – Put the bike pedal that is against the wall at its upmost position. Try to put the bike as vertical as possible. Your limit will be either the pedal or the handlebar being just short of touching the wall. This is very important because it will reduce the horizontal forces that will strain the upper hanger.

4 – Now it’s time to strike a balanced position for the upper hanger. Too high will leave less horizontal strain on the upper hanger, but will make it more difficult to reach and fit the loops. Too low will make it easier to reach, but will also put a lot of horizontal strain on the hanger and your arms when lifting the bike. Hold the bike against the wall with the loops in your hands to feel the weight it will pull and assess the best angle. A lower angle (α) of less than 40° between rope and wall, looks like a good compromise. Please check the final chapter on this hack (Before you mount), to understand how this affects the solution.

5 – Tune the loops to adjust the rope to be as short as possible. Don’t forget there must be a small margin to let your rope loops go through the hanger hooks.

6 – Measure all distances between hangers. Choose your spot, transfer those distances to the wall and drill. Use deep screws to make sure your hangers are secured to the wall. Start with a thinner drill first. If you start right away with the final drill size for the screws, the chances are they might slip while drilling, and you end up with tilted hangers.

7 – Test how well the upper hanger is secured. If it can stand half the weight of your bike, you should be safe, but check the next chapter to understand what kind of strains the weight will pull.

8 – Hang it. Start by putting the strip on the bike frame. Then take the weight out of the bike by placing the wheels on the lower hangers. Finally put the rope loops through the hooks on the upper hanger.

9 – Adjust it. One big advantage of the leather strip is that it’s easy to make the knot around the bike frame wider. This way you can fine tune the tilt angle of the bike, just about until the pedal or handlebar touches the wall. A rope will also allow you to do it, but it’s easier for the ties to slip.

10 – Congratulations! You are done!

Before you mount.

This is a very rough force distribution estimate assuming a 12kg bike, with a center of mass at the point of support. This oversimplification takes into account the lateral and vertical forces and assumes that the weight is equally distributed among all 3 hangers, the upper one at a 37° angle against the wall and the lower ones at a 18° angle. The noteworthy information from these numbers is that you should make sure that your upper hanger is well secured against the wall, because it will be the one subjected to the biggest strain.Mounting the upper hanger at a higher position will reduce angle (α) thus reducing the horizontal strain and increasing the vertical.

WARNING: I have not measured forces for this model. Instead I have used simple High School Physics and Trigonometry.
This is an estimate based on my own model. Your angles, weights and forces will surely vary.
Ground test before you fly it!!!